By Nance Ebert, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – At just 17 years old, Shrewsbury resident Vanessa Mailing Haynes has already accomplished what some don’t achieve in a lifetime. She is an accomplished pianist who has traveled the world performing in places such as Poland, Italy, Spain and Beijing.
Just having returned from performing in Europe, she and her parents, Linda and James, are getting ready to move to New Jersey so she can continue studying with her teachers from the New England Conservatory. Hung-Kuan Chen and his wife, Tema Blackstone, have accepted new positions at Julliard in Manhattan, where Haynes will be starting a pre-college program that meets each weekend.
At the age of 4, Haynes and her family moved to China from Houston, Texas. She was sent to a boarding kindergarten program. There, she was exposed to a strong arts program.
“Even though I was so little, this was a wonderful experience for me,” she recalled. “I was there from Monday to Friday and then I would go back home for the weekend. The philosophy of this program was based on the fact that young children exposed to the arts can absorb so much. I attended this program until the age of 6, where at the graduation program performance, so many commented on my talent to perform as well as my stage presence. My parents were encouraged to have me continue with the piano.”
Haynes began studying under the tutelage of Yafen Zhu. She has been passionate about her gift ever since. She does not take her talent for granted and continuously works hard to learn and perfect her playing. Because she is homeschooled, her schedule is a bit more flexible. She practices about six to seven hours daily.
“I don’t have just one piece to work on. The pieces that I have are many pages long and have many movements so it’s a lot of work but I still think it’s fun,” Haynes said.
She said she loves going on stage and connecting with the audience.
“For me, performing enables me to release all of the work that I have been practicing, but I also get to share my own ideas through the music,” Haynes noted.
Her favorite composers coincidently all begin with the letter ‘B’: Beethoven, Bach and Brahms.
Haynes has been chosen to be the Young Steinway Artist in 2014. This prestigious award means a lot to her.
“A Steinway is the best piano in the world to play. Sometimes when I am traveling I seek out the Steinway shops to practice. I love what I can do on a Steinway. When I’m performing, I can now go to a Steinway shop and pick out the piano I want to perform on and they will bring it over. That is pretty cool,” she said.
Her parents could not be prouder and have traveled with her to the festivals and concerts. While neither plays the piano, they enjoy listening to her perform.
“I feel so blessed. She is the youngest of our children and I really did so little. I joke around that she is my ‘free child,’” her mother said.
“I am happy and exhausted. I can now go to her concerts and relax and enjoy,” added her father.
One of Haynes’ recent highlights this summer was when she went to Perugia, Italy, for a music festival. This is the third time she has been there. This time she got to perform a concerto at a basilica.
Haynes is excited to start a new chapter in New Jersey, where she hopes to enjoy nature. She is eager to learn to care for the chickens that the previous homeowners have left behind for her family and to hike some of the trails near the new home.
In the more distant future, she hopes to become a well-known pianist who travels and shares her music around the world.
“If I don’t make it, that’s OK,” she admitted. “Growing up with music has been wonderful. I love music and the life that it could give me. This process through music means the most to me so we’ll see what happens.”
